The high school esports scene is currently undergoing an unprecedented growth in acceptance and adoption nation-wide. This means that more and more high schools are putting teams together, which has also lead to an explosion of competition organizers. While more competitions means that teams have more options as to what events they want to play in, it can also lead to teams feeling overwhelmed and unsure of which competitions will best suit their needs.
Here we’ll dive into the different types of leagues you may encounter, and why you should consider passing or playing in each type.
Round Robin leagues are some of the most common formats for high school leagues. A round robin tournament will typically consist of a regular season section along with a playoff section. During the regular season every team will play every other team in the league once, with the final seeding based off of a team’s final record. A set number of teams will move on to the playoff bracket to determine the champion. A variation on this format is the Double Round Robin, in which all teams play each other twice during the regular season.
Round Robins are usually a longer duration league, with exact amount of matches based on the amount of teams in the league. This typically means that a Round Robin event will be limited to 4 - 10 teams competing.
This is how you would visualize match schedules in a 10-person Round Robin
RR Pros
Most widely available.
Predictable schedule.
Smaller pool of consistent competitors.
Best for gauging relative team strength.
RR Cons
Can run longer than most types of competition.
Won’t expose teams to new competition.
Week-to-week competitor strength can vary widely.
Swiss leagues share some similarities with Round Robins in the fact that they typically have both a regular season and playoffs. The main difference between the two is that instead of each team playing every other team, Swiss brackets will re-seed each team on a weekly basis to match teams against those with similar records. This leads to top teams being matched against other top teams, and bottom teams against other bottom teams.
Swiss leagues have the advantage of hosting more teams with a shorter regular season than Round Robin, so they are typically used when a large number of teams need to be narrowed down to a few top contenders in a shorter timeframe. Expect to see these leagues when entering national level competitions.
Swiss Pros
More teams means a greater range of competitors.
Re-seeding leads to more competitive matches.
Swiss Cons
Unpredictable round opponents.
Shorter seasons can lead to inconsistent rankings.
Group Stage tournaments are typically variations on either the Round Robin or Swiss league systems. The main variation on this system is that during the regular season teams are separated into one of multiple groups. Within each of these groups, teams will play either a Swiss or Round Robin season amongst teams within the same group. This helps to increase the amount of teams competing without lengthening the duration of the season.
Elimination Brackets usually serve as a playoff format for leagues with a regular season, or as a standalone league format. Elimination Brackets progress with the loser of each round either being eliminated from the tournament or placed in a lower bracket, with the final team remaining being crowned champions. There are typically two main variations on the Elimination Bracket format. Single Elimination Tournaments remove the losing team from each match from the tournament with no chance of re-entry. Double Elimination Tournaments have a “winners” and “losers” bracket: teams start on the winners’ side, and the defeated teams from these matches are placed in the losers’ side, and then teams defeated on the losers’ side are removed from the tournament.
Just like traditional sports, different high schools will have the ability to play at different levels, based on the skill levels of the student players they have available. While traditional sports have standardized rankings put in place by athletic organizations, esports do not currently have any such system, meaning that it’s up to each team to gauge their own level of competition and select the correct leagues accordingly.
Here’s the general rule of thumb: the more national the competition, the more competitive the teams are going to be. While there are advantages to playing in a more competitive league, there can also be concerns of demoralization if your team goes on long losing streaks, so finding leagues where you balance the competitiveness is the goal here.
Searching for competition from scratch can often be a long and difficult process. Here’s a list of established high school event organizers to help get you started.
PlayVS: Currently the largest high school organizer for Fortnite, League of Legends, Rocket League, and Smite.
HSEL: Long running national high school organizer currently supporting 12 games.
NASEF: Become free members of this organization to get access to periodic tournaments.
Along with these national organizers, be sure to check with local schools, athletics conferences, and state athletics organizers for more locally based events.
Sometimes high school specific leagues aren’t enough to challenge your players. Maybe they don’t hold events for the games they play or maybe the competition level is too high or not high enough. Thankfully, most esports titles are built upon thriving communities that often host their own events. While you might not find quite the same level of professionalism or sportsmanship in some of these events, they can still be a fantastic resource for finding competition outside of your main leagues. When looking for these community events, here’s where to start looking.
Community Event Pages: Most games will have some sort of online board for community events attached to the game’s or developer’s website.
Community Forums: Alongside event boards, most games will have a dedicated online space where players can discuss different aspects of the game publicly. Often, events looking for participants will post about their events here.
Independent Event Organizers: Similar to how the above mentioned high school event organizers run events for high school students, some organizers run similar events for the amateur and semi-professional communities, as well as some that high school teams may also compete in.
Your Players: If your players have been playing these games before joining their high school team there is a good chance they are already familiar with that game’s community. Be sure to consult your players to help find leads on new community events.
As with anything regarding high school esports, there are no set-in-stone rules when it comes to finding events to compete in. Your greatest resource will always be those who are already in the gaming community, so make sure to take advantage of the experience of your players and fellow high school teams.